Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a vehicle occupant restraining system provided at a side support portion of a seat back of a vehicle seat.
Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open (JP-A) No. 2008-087631 discloses a side airbag device in which, inside a side support portion of a seat back, an auxiliary inflating section (an inside airbag) is provided in a position further at a vehicle inner side than a main inflating section (a side airbag). The inside airbag, at the time of a side impact to the vehicle, inflates and deploys earlier than the side airbag and pushes the upper body of an occupant seated in a vehicle seat toward the vehicle inner side (the opposite side of the location of the impact) in a vehicle obliquely forward direction. Thereby, a wide space in which the side airbag may inflate and deploy is ensured so that the inflation and deployment is rapidly and reliably carried out.
However, in the side airbag device with the configuration described above, the inside airbag inflates and deploys when the side airbag inflates and deploys. At this time, a load from the side airbag and a load from the inside airbag combine and act on the occupant. In a case in which the total load exceeds the load resistance value of the occupant, the occupant becomes unable to be appropriately protected, so a measure such as lowering the loads that the individual airbags apply to the occupant becomes necessary. As a result, it becomes difficult to allow each airbag to exhibit its maximum performance and, therefore, there is room for improvement from the standpoint of more effectively protecting the occupant.